


All The Colors

by LostNotFound



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, joshler - Freeform, twenty one pilots - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 11:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8012458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostNotFound/pseuds/LostNotFound
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sleepless night on the tour bus finds Josh exploring the world of Joshler fan fiction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All The Colors

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [stay in place (sing a chorus)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1822504) by [SoloChaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoloChaos/pseuds/SoloChaos). 



It was the sound of muffled crying that woke him.  
He hadn’t been sleeping, not really. But he was far enough over the line to be slightly confused when he opened his eyes. Tyler ran his hands over his face as he tried to process what he had heard, as well as trying to figure out where exactly he was. As the seconds ticked by, his foggy mind began to clear a bit and he remembered. The tour...they were running behind schedule because of weather in Boston and were driving through the night to get to the next city….the next concert. He never rested well when they spent the night on the tour bus, so it came as no surprise that he had woken so easily at the first sound coming from the bunk below his.  
There it was again. It sounded as if someone were trying desperately to be quiet, but the sound of the muted sniffling was unmistakable.  
“Josh?” he said, his voice cracking a bit, “What’s wrong” He rolled on to his stomach and leaned over the side of the bunk in order to see his best friend below.  
Josh was propped up in his bunk, a laptop on his outstretched legs. He had his hand over his face, and as an alarmed Tyler watched, Josh began to furiously wipe away the tears from his eyes.  
Tyler immediately jumped down from his bunk, all traces of sleep forgotten and was by his friend’s side in an instant.  
“What happened?” Tyler asked, his heart beginning to pound, “Is it your mom? Is it...my mom?”  
Josh just shook his head and continued to look upset and possibly even a little….embarrassed?  
“He...he saw everyting...as colors. And they all made him believe he was crazy, and he...just gave up.” Josh said, fresh tears beginning to fall as he stared at the computer screen. “Oh God, he just...i can’t believe he did that...”  
Tyler’s alarm began to grow, and he reached out and put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.  
“Who? What are you even talking about right now, man?”  
Josh ran his hand over his face once again, and half heartedly pointed towards the laptop.  
Tyler’s gaze shifted and tried to get his tired eyes to focus on the computer screen. Words...lots of words on a white background. Tyler leaned down and quickly snatched up the laptop, and began to move his finger along the track pad. His eyes skimmed over the words, trying to find the source of his friend’s distress. It appeared to be some kind of story...one with two characters named Tyler and Josh.  
“What…?” Tyler mumbled to himself, confused. He scrolled up to the top of the page, and saw a bunch of information about the story. It was called “Stay In Place” and a light bulb came to full illumination inside his mind. Shaking his head, Tyler turned back to his friend.  
“Josh...were you...reading...twenty one pilots fan fiction?”  
Tyler watched as color began to bloom in Josh’s face.  
“Like you haven’t,” Josh grumbled, looking decidedly uncomfortable now.  
Tyler chuckled. He felt relieved knowing that there was nothing wrong with Josh or any of their loved ones, and he motioned for Josh to move over on the bunk. He handed him back the laptop and climbed onto the thin mattress beside him.  
“Number 1,” Tyler began, holding up his index finger close to Josh’s face, “no, I haven’t read any of this stuff, and number 2..even if I had, I know for a fact I wouldn’t have been sitting here at 2am crying over a story about fictional versions of me and my best friend.”  
Josh shook his head, looking indignant now.  
“Ty, look...you don’t even understand. It wasn’t like I was reading about a made up version of you and me. I was just….reading this incredibly messed up story about 2 people who...” Tyler watched, his mouth open slightly as, incredibly, Josh’s eyes began to brim with tears once again.  
“What is happening right now?” Tyler asked, feeling very confused. For the first time, he wondered if he had actually fallen asleep and was right now, in the middle of a very surreal dream.  
Josh’s fingers went to the track pad of the laptop, and started scrolling through the fan fiction site.  
“There are so many stories, man. Literally, thousands of them. And yeah...it’s weird that they’re about us. Or...well, made up versions of us...but if you look past that, there is some really good stuff here.”  
Tyler glanced at the screen, and watched as story after story scrolled by.  
He and Josh had always been aware of the fan fiction that had been written about them by their fans. And while that kind of thing tended to bother a lot of other artists, he had always been totally fine with it. Was it weird that people created these worlds where he and Josh lived sometimes bizarre lives? Yes. Add to that the fact that the vast majority of them involved he and Josh being involved in a romantic relationship, and it was enough to mess with anyone’s head. But in the end...what their fans were doing was creating something. And creating something, no matter how unorthodox it might seem to some people, can never be a bad thing.  
And besides if it had bothered him, Tyler would never have spent the last few years playing up the Joshler rumors to begin with. He and Josh enjoyed messing with people. And flirting with Josh in interviews took the focus off of other subjects. Subjects that were far less fun to talk about.  
Plus there was that old saying he had heard somewhere..joke about what scares you, and suddenly the fear holds less power over you.  
And how he felt when he flirted with Josh, and more importantly how it felt when Josh flirted back? That was a fear he wasn’t ready to deal with right now.  
If he was being really honest with himself, it secretly made him happy to know so many of their fans envisioned a world where Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun were in love.  
But again, that wasn’t something he was ready to face just yet.  
Taking a deep breath, Tyler looked over at Josh again. He was still talking about the stories he had come across that night. The bunk was tiny and they were practically on top of each other in the confined space.  
“It’s hard not to get sucked in once you start.” his eyes met Tyler’s, the only light coming from the open laptop. “It kind of feels like...i don’t know. Falling down the rabbit hole or something.” Josh laughed, and Tyler smiled at the slightly embarrassed look that passed over his friend’s face. So fricking cute.  
“Well,” Tyler said, convincing himself not to stare, and turning to face the laptop once again. “I do think it’s cool that they care so much, you know? All these people care about 2 nerds from Ohio enough to...create entire worlds around us. Them.” Tyler shrugged and laughed quietly.  
Josh leaned his head back, and returned the smile.  
“Yeah, it is.” The look on Josh’s face was...wistful maybe? Tyler couldn’t help but be very aware of how close they were to each other on the mattress.  
“You were...” Josh started, “I mean, the Tyler in that story...he was so broken and I couldn’t help but want to...” he closed his eyes, and sighed. “I don’t know...i wanted to be Story Josh so I could have tried...to make it better. I would have handled things differently, and never left you...i mean Story Tyler...alone.”  
Tyler didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t know anything about the story Josh was talking about, but it felt like so much more was being said in that moment. He only wished he could get a glimpse inside Josh’s unique mind in order for the meaning to become clear.  
“If it makes you feel any better,” Tyler said quietly, “I think Story Tyler would have been the luckiest person in the world to have been saved by Story Josh.”  
Josh bit his bottom lip, and offered Tyler a huge smile. Tyler might have felt something twitch inside his chest, but didn’t allow himself to notice. Not much anyway.  
Clearing his throat, Tyler climbed off the bunk, taking the laptop with him.  
“Okay, I think story time is over, buddy. You need your beauty sleep.”  
Josh laughed and slid down the mattress, pulling the blanket up to his chest.  
“Yes, daddy.” he joked  
Tyler reached out and ruffled Josh’s pink tinged hair, “Stop trying to turn me on. It’s late.” The banter was second nature at this point. “Sweet dreams, Jishwa.”  
“Sweet dreams.” Josh replied yawning.  
Tyler climbed back up into his own tiny bunk, laptop in hand. He lay there for a while, just staring off into space, and listening to the soft sounds of his friend slipping into sleep below. Finally, he pushed himself up, shoving his pillows behind his back and opened the macbook. The browser window was still open, and he found himself moving the curser so it hovered over the tag search bar. In his mind he pictured Josh’s face, and the angelic smile that had brought so much light, at least temporarily, into Tyler’s sleepless night. Without allowing himself to overthink things, he found himself typing.

_Twenty One Pilots_  
_Joshler_  
_Fluff_

He pressed _search_ and allowed himself to fall down the rabbit hole, alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by the song How To Draw by The 1975


End file.
